In an attempt to improve product substantivity on skin surfaces, the prior art has traditionally used cationic fatty derivatives, quaternary ammonium salts, resins and gums as additives in cream/lotion bases. Little work has been done to improve the emulsion base itself apart from routine product stability adjustments. In recent years, raw material vendors flooded the market with these additives to further complicate the dilemma. Indeed the formulation of good cream/lotions has become secondary to the incorporation of these inelegant additives to create compositions which neither look nor feel like cosmetic creams. Instead, they are very sticky, and leave an uncomfortable feel throughout the usage period. User compliance with such compositions is therefore quite poor. Moreover, the use of certain cationic/quaternary ingredients will cause skin and eye irritations. In addition resins and gums can cause "powdering" upon drying from too great a friability which further contributes to poor product appearance and inferior skin substantivity.
As a result, many products on the market today give the consumer a false sense of security because of the inability of the active ingredients thereof to remain in place when the user is engaged in water activities, or encounters rain or other liquids which literally wash the active ingredients away.
The present invention comprises an effort to address this problem and provide elegant topically applied preparation which is water repellent, moisturizes the skin, and further serves as a novel drug delivery system in which sunscreens, and like topically effecting drugs/chemicals can be applied to human skin. The base composition of the present invention can be formulated to provide a variety of cosmetic, presonal care and/or pharmaceutical preparations, such as hand creams, lip balm, facial cosmetics, diaper creams, ostomy creams, medicinal creams and the like. Thus, a preparation is herein described which possesses many positive attributes including superior water repellency, resistance to being washed off, physiological mildness, and a pleasant feel which enhances user comfort and hence, user compliance.